"Dailies" is what I call my habit tracker. I've seen beautifully colored habit trackers on other people's BuJo blogs and wanted to have that, so I created a version that fits in my journal.
The try: create a habit tracker in my journal.
The success: fitting two weeks of habits onto a page of the journal.
The fail: not getting my colored pens/pencils so I end up with a bunch of one-color boxes (and a bunch of empty spaces, but see below).
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| okay Dailies |
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| also okay Dailies |
The success: listing everything I want to do each day.
The fail: having WAAAAAY too many items.
I just read somewhere (where??) not to put too many items on your habit tracker. That is good advice.
When I threw some minutes on for each line on my Dailies -- 20 minutes of writing per story I want to get done, 5 minutes for scheduling tasks, .5 minutes to take a pill -- I ended up with 247 minutes for everything I want to get done each day. (That does include working on the Bullet Journal presentation for M&M, a task that will last only until I give the presentation).
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| huge fail Dailies |
That's 4.05 hours of just daily tasks. And while some of these happen in the morning or during the day (reading, drinking water, checking email), the bulk of them are supposed to happen in the evenings.
No wonder I've been failing.
We usually get home after 8 PM. I feed the cats, which takes about 30 minutes to wash the soaked bowls, play with them, feed them, feed Diana, and if there are foster kittens, add an extra 15 minutes to wash their bowls, feed them, scoop their litterboxes, and cuddle them. Add a few more minutes to that if they're on medications. So I'm up to 8:45 by now.
Then dinner -- make or heat up something and watch a 44-minute TV show. That takes me to 9:30 or 10 PM.
Even if I go to bed at 1 AM, which is not unusual, that's only three hours. No wonder I've been failing.
Why did it take me so long to think about how long each of these tasks takes?!?
Maybe I'm overestimating some of them -- dishes won't take 15 minutes, right? -- so maybe I could pare it down to 3 hours. (Let's not even think about the non-daily tasks that are supposed to fit in there somehow....)
I could do 3 hours of something that's not TV every evening, right? Especially if it means I get stuff done?
I need to revise that page, to call it a habit tracker to remind myself that these aren't just tasks I'm trying to complete, but actual habits I'd like to cultivate. Words matter, people!!
Now...which habits are worth cultivating, and which should be left behind (or at least until I've sort out my free time)?
